This is now my 4th "5 year plan" in China, and I've started to notice the pattern. In the late 90s, Shanghai got all of the love (60% of the world's construction equipment). Between 2001 and 2008, Beijing received the same favor... bolstered by the Olympics, of course.

Between 2008 and the recent NPC, funds were largely directed to national infrastructure, but Guangxi started to draw serious attention about 1 year ago, and is now front and center. By way of example, a certain airline that recently started service between its home base and Shanghai was only able to do so because it initiated Nanning service first.

I'll try to grab you some pics of the street food this evening. It really is quite nice, but y100 for street food is rather insane.

well.. it's the 12th "5 year plan" currently..

your "favor" theory sounds a bit far-fetched.. Shanghai held Expo in 2010 too and the scale of construction in Shanghai before the Expo was just beyond imagination. The Bund was basically shut down for an overhaul style construction.


well.. again, put guangxi in the "front and center" of China may overdo it somewhat. guanxi's neighbor, guangdong is always the focus of China by any means, anyone else in southwest China hardly draws attention.. except Chongqing under Bo Xilai.

I said it was MY 4th 5-year plan because I wasn't around during the preceding plans. Expo was nothing in comparison to SH 95-01 or Beijing during the Olympic run up. If you really care (I don't), I'd be happy to dig up some hard data in support of my points.

sorry to miss your point.

well, I don't think any hard data can really quantify the scale of construction or even, in this case, compare two cities given their heterogeneity. maybe infrastructure investment in RMB is the least-bad measure although it does not captures the intensity.

While I'm no expert in this area, I've spent enough time in China to realize that the government here is prone to pushing specific goals. Shanghai got its lift when Zhu Rongji was still influential, and now Beijing can't ignore it. Beijing will always help Beijing.

Insofar as the rest of the country is concerned, HSR has been a boon to ~50 cities, but there hasn't been a lot of isolated attention (from the central government) to many of them.

Nanning is a clear exception to this rule. Check back here in 2 years, lest you don't believe me. I am absolutely certain about its bright future.

When I arrived, they were still setting up shop, but you don't need to have a great deal of imagination to envision the finished product:

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/4618/8fp8.jpg

A plate of lamb will set you back y80, and they are pretty good at figuring out sides that will push the bill to y100. This is very expensive for street food, but I must say that it is the best cuisine I've experienced in Nanning... apart from the VN restaurant behind the MixC, which I will plug the next time an FTer actually visits Nanning.

Thanks for the photo, moondog.

Is that just a dolled up bbq place, the types ubiquitous in the 大陆? Dolled up because it looks like that display case can be kept cool...
Also, just lamb for 80 kuai? No vegetables/starch? Is it that there isn't much street food in Nanning, and/or does every option (meat/vegetables/other snacks) cost a lot?
Think that even with your Chinese skills you are subject to tiered pricing?

Like I said, food is a priority in China, so I'm genuinely curious.

Are there any updates as to when these HSR open?
Do you hear in the streets of Nanning that you are in an autonomous region - the Zhuang one?

About the Chinese there, is their local dialect mutually intelligible with Cantonese, or is it not?

I actually haven't experienced that specific lamb yet because the minimum order is 2 jin (for y156), so I usually go to the 串 place next door to eat chicken, ginger oysters, pork fried rice, and some sort of vegetable.

I don't feel that I'm being subjected to tiered pricing because my colleagues are also quoted the exact same y156. It seems that if you want quality food in Nanning, you need to be prepared to pay for it.

Insofar as language is concerned, similar to Shanghai and Beijing, Nanning is a "working city", meaning that the majority of people here come from other places. As such, 普通话 is the primary language, and accents are fairly standard. But, I would say that at least half of the people in these parts speak Cantonese as well.

I've started reviewing NN restaurants on TA
 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...ECK_RATES_CONT

There is a typo in the above review that I can't figure out how to edit; please accept my apologies. People in these parts think that Babel is god's gift to Nanning, but I can't recall ever having such bad food during my life to date. In light of the fact that Nanning food is pretty dreadful on the whole, I tend to pad my ratings, which means that one star is simply abominable. Like I said in my review, the staff is so friendly that I want to give them a chance to improve.

Wow! Thanks moondog for thread about Nanning. I was in Nanning and Beihai many many years ago. I can't imagine what Nanning looks like now. Enjoy your reports so far...hope to revisit Nanning some day.

Gary Leff's blog has an interesting post about China's air traffic control today.

Summer is a bear for flying around China because most planes rotate between BJ, SH, and the PRD. If weather is bad in any one of these places, the entire schedule gets thrown off. The PLA thing is also an issue, but less and less so; the competitiveness of the trains forced the airlines to force the government to reign in the PLA. I can't wait for the Nanning-Guangzhou train to launch; this will allow me to go to HK or SZ every weekend without spending 3 hours on the ground at NNG.

Several months in, so here's another update. I miss Shanghai quite a bit: the food, the people (believe it or not, if you spend enough time there, you can find the good apples), and the social life.

Within about 6 weeks, I expect to have our Nanning operation in good enough shape in order to permit me to split time between here and SH.

Nanning really isn't that bad. I've been able to find acceptable food over time, my Chinese has become stellar once again (it's amazing how little need there is for Mandarin skills in BJ/SH these days), and I've made a handful of friends.

That having been said, there really isn't a whole lot to do here. This evening, when I was eating my 串 at my local crappy restaurant, I noted that almost all of the patrons there were demonstrably rich (e.g. fancy watches, purses, glasses, etc), but they were still resigned to spending their Sunday night hanging out in third world environment.

The good news is that I'm doing everything in my power to improve the quality of their lives. In particular, we managed to convince a very cool Filipino singer/guitarist to come over here and perform at two of our client venues (plus Yangshuo during the slow days), and the response has been amazing. We are also bringing in beer and wine that is not disgusting. It's all about baby steps. In short, within 2 years time, Nanning will actually be worth visiting. By the way, if anyone wants to stop by the ASEAN Expo between 9/3 and 9/6, I'd be happy to provide invites.

It is a comfort food and familiar crowd issue.

You can take a boy out of rural China but you cna't take the rural China roots out of a boy.